“I already know what you’re thinking. Who would want a used up, scratched compact with a miniature powdering puff so small. It would take days to apply my cover up! And what do the letters VF on the cover even mean?”

“Well my friends let me recount a little of my history to you and the secrets lying within me, then maybe you’ll come to see that I am in no way ordinary, but in fact extraordinary! That my scratches are part of my charm, and why my cover bears the letters VF upon it.”

“I belonged to a woman named Vera Falvo, those are her initials engraved on my cover. She wasn’t one for fancy, frivolous items which wasted money. For some reason, she was drawn to me upon seeing me in the shop. Back then, my paint was lustrous and the sunlight bounced off my gleaming mirror sending rainbows of color cascading off the surrounding walls. I was quite a stunning sight to behold. The intricate design created on my cover, coupled with the fresh miniature powder puff to apply the powder once contained within were an immediate draw. The additional pocket found on my powder puff was designed for a finger to be slipped inside to apply powder effortlessly! I was quite revolutionary in design for that pre-Depression era.”

“Vera fell in love with me instantly, but being the type of woman who didn’t approve of spending money on herself, she left me at the store, heading home to care for her young children and husband. Money was tight, I was a luxury she could certainly get by without. That night as her family sat around the dinner table, she must have mentioned seeing me in the shop, and her husband must have picked up on the longing in her voice, because the next day I found myself lifted from the display case, carried to the counter by the shop owner, to be shown to a gruff sounding male with blue eyes as bright as the sky. (I knew they matched the sky because I’d seen hints of it from my perch in the shop through the glass storefront window). Then I heard the shopkeeper say,

“Sir if you’d like I could engrave your wife’s initials on the compact’s cover.”

“Why not, she deserves to have something pretty” the blue eyed man responded.

“The next thing I felt was something sharp tearing into my lovely painted cover, but when it stopped I caught a glimpse of myself in the store’s mirror on the countertop and saw I now had the letters VF inscribed on me in beautiful cursive script. Then everything went dark as I was carefully wrapped and packaged.”

“Suddenly my darkness was brightened by the packaging being excitedly torn away and I was staring at the face of the woman who had lovingly held me in her hands, admiring me only a day prior. She gasped with delight at the sight of me, running her fingertips over the newly engraved VF, her initials. Then flung her arms happily around the blue eyed man sitting next to her, watching with pleasure as she unwrapped me.”

“Every day Vera took me out of the box I came in and after inspecting my intricacies, slowly, methodically applied her powder using the specially designed puff. She even put her favorite pink hued lipstick in the lipstick holder that was attached to me and had also been engraved with her initials. Unfortunately, one day all my powder was used up as well as the lipstick. Did Vera discard me like some useless object? No, she kept me out to decorate the surface of her vanity. One day I felt myself lifted up, and carried off to another part of the house. I thought this was it for me, she was going to shove me in a drawer somewhere since I had outlived my purpose. Suddenly, I felt my little powder puff removed as I was laid on a table. Then Vera placed something in the finger pocket of the powder puff, replaced the puff, closed me up, and returned me to my original place on the vanity. What she placed in the pocket of my powder puff let me know she would always treasure me as special to her. I breathed a sigh of relief, and set about watching the decades pass from my perch on the vanity. What was it she placed in my pocket you want to know? Look below in the final picture to see.”

All words when broken apart are a bunch of individual letters that when separated don’t deliver any type of impact, but when strung together, create excerpts that can resonate with the reader long after they have read a particular piece of writing! That is the magic within letters. They can unite to create a poignant piece of poetry, or a riveting edge of your seat thriller of a story. Letters combined into words can elicit immense emotional responses from an individual coupled with the tone and the manner in which one delivers them. These tiny insignificant letters are not insignificant at all! When presented in sentences such as, “Will you marry me?” They cause a euphoric reaction within an individual. They can cause intense pain when presented in sentences such as “You are fired!” Letters are powerful when united into words. Be sure to use yours wisely!

As a previous kindergarten teacher, I had the pleasure of introducing children to the magic created when combining letters to form words. This initial introduction for children to the concept of taking individual letters to create words, and from there form sentences, paragraphs, stories, and so on, is essential. Teachers are entrusted with the task of educating tomorrow’s leaders. The elementary process of connecting letter sounds together to formulate words may be something many people have long since forgotten about because it is practically innate in us. These new learners however must be enlightened to the secrets behind creating words using 26 letters. Their journey to incorporating letters into words has just commenced!

If you ever enter a kindergarten classroom you will see the alphabet prominently displayed for these eager new minds. Additional posters on how to correctly print these letters, along with cute eye-catching pictures depicting characters whose names begin with each letter of the alphabet to help students make the letter-sound connection, are seen gracing the walls of the classroom. Last year, courtesy of Pinterest, my colleagues and I took the letter craze one step further. We built crate seats for the work centers and found fabric depicting the letters of the alphabet to cover the seats with. This is what you see pictured above. The students now had another additional reminder of letters whenever they went to work centers! Letters may seem small and unimportant when encountered individually, but together their importance and strength comprises endless possibilities! Letters are small but mighty!

Hello friends and followers! I’m extremely excited to share with you the link for my author interview with Book Shelf! I’d be eternally grateful if you checked it out today or this weekend! Here’s the link:Book Shelf News
Press on the authors/services tab and scroll down to the second interview to see my smiling face lol!
I want to take this opportunity to say how much I appreciate all the support I’ve received in starting my writing company Rainbows of Happiness LLC from friends, family, and strangers who have become wonderful friends. This positive supportive energy is what keeps me going! Thank you all for accompanying me in this magnificent journey! Have a wonderful weekend all!

A post challenge of three! I had to share these beautifully designed cupcakes I was lucky enough to eat at a bridal shower this past weekend! They are arranged on a “three” tiered mirrored tray to enhance their appeal! They were quite delicious each one artfully decorated with care! A true trifecta of decadence!

A friend of mine Angel Chen owns a company in China called Teavivre Out of the goodness of her heart she shipped me several loose teas and as a gesture of goodwill I wanted to share with you all a review of her company’s teas! These teas come from various areas in China, consist of hand rolled tea leaves and tea pearls, which open up when brewed releasing floral and fruity scents throughout your home!

Tea can be very beneficial for its many healthy properties it extols such as added antioxidants found in green tea or chamomile’s ability to produce a calming effect on one’s body, reducing tension and stress. So here are a sampling of loose teas found at Teavivre which offers a monthly tea sampling to consumers allowing you to test drive their teas at a reduced rate.

Jasmine “Dragon Pearls” Green Tea
I love green tea and this specific tea is infused with the heady scent of jasmine. The reason it is called “Dragon Pearls” is because the loose tea leaves have been rolled into tight balls resembling pearls. You only need to brew a few of these pearls at a time for your daily cup of tea because they open up to emit the intense tea flavor and scent of jasmine when brewed. The flavor of this tea is sweet, strong, and delicious! The scent of jasmine inhaled with each sip really made this tea stand out for me! Easily my favorite!

Chamomile Rose Silver Needle White Tea
Coming in as a close second in favorite teas from Teavivre is the chamomile Rose Silver Needle White Tea. This tea sample contained silver needle buds, chamomile leaves, and rose leaves. While brewing this tea, I was enticed by the heady scent of roses that was released. I found this chamomile tea to be relaxing, relieving the stress of the day. The fact that this is a white tea also offers added health benefits to the tea drinker.

Organic Silver Needle White Tea
For those fond of organic beverages, this tea is made of pure tea leaves. From the first sip, I immediately felt a warm sense of calm overtake my whole body! This tea isn’t bitter or strong like some of the others, rather it is more mellow in both taste and flavor. It was very enjoyable and since it is a white tea, one gains the health benefits associated with white tea while enjoying it!

Bi Luo Chan Green Tea
A green tea that is created using tea buds (tightly wrapped tea leaves), and new leaves. The aroma of fruit especially one of orange or citrus is apparent in this tea. When brewed, the tea color becomes bright green in color! I found this green tea from Teavivre to be mellow in substance. The additional benefit this tea provides is needed antioxidants to your body.

Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea
This green tea is made from teabuds rolled tightly to keep in the tea’s flavor until brewed, and new leaves. The tea itself has a light nutty flavor to it, yet it is very sweet and enjoyable. It reminded me of a really earthly type of tea in aroma and flavor.

Anxi Superfine Tie Guan Yin “Iron Goddess” Oolong Tea
The name sames it all in describing this tea made of pure tea leaves. It’s a strong tasting tea with a sweet flavor that lingers with you well beyond your first sip. When brewing this tea, you will notice a floral scent emitted. If you enjoy a strong pure tea this oolong tea is for you!

So if you are a tea lover like myself, be sure to visit the site www.teavivre.com and check out all the other various teas offered there. Be sure to talk with Angel Chen, a professional tea ceremony individual, about the benefits of the teas on the site, and sign up to try a few that interest you!

What can I say I love this week’s photography challenge of community! Here are a few more additions of communities both small and large.

The most common community type seen lately, birds in v-formation heading South as a community.

A community of teapots each symbolizing different places and moments in my mom’s life.

My favorite community formation! A community of various teacups owned by my mother. Some dating back to before I was born! This shadow box housing the community of teacups has been hanging here for as long as I can remember. Each teacup in this community tells a story about a time or event in my mom’s life. This teacup community is a compilation of her life’s experiences.

Another well-known type of community, a community of various fish! Fish don’t segregate one another based on type or size. They’re content to exist together in a makeshift community regardless of color, shape, or variety. They form a true melting pot of a community!

I won’t deny that I’m not the most computer savvy individual when it comes to creating my own webpage. For me it’s a lot of hit or miss experiences. Well today you will notice how all of my blogs are now improved as a result of adding widgets! I stumbled upon the area of how to incorporate widgets simply by mistake! Now I see why some blogs look so put together! I am loving widgets! I don’t have it all down pat just yet and pingbacks still confuse the heck out of me, but at least my blogs look more cohesive now! Anyway I know this isn’t my usual type of post, so I won’t bore you with my new love of computer technology. If anyone is at all capable of understanding how to use pingbacks to respond to prompts from another site I would be eternally grateful as to how to go about pinging a post to another post! 🙂 I promise no more boring posts after this! If you have been stuck on widgets, plugins, and pingbacks too below are some helpful articles. If you’ve read all the way through this post well then you deserve a reward in the form of some beautiful photography! Hope you enjoyed the capture of the sun bursting through the clouds I took today!

When I saw this cute snowman cookie I had to buy it on principle. You see my uncle who passed over the summer would always buy holiday themed cookies like this for my brother and I growing up. It was like a tradition for him. Every holiday we could count on getting a special holiday cookie from him every year growing up. Unfortunately the cookies weren’t the best tasting, but it was nice to know he always was thinking of us! He was a great uncle and always thought about others. I bought this cookie in his honor!

Like this:

Do you love the smell of flowers entwined with the scent of fruit? If so, you will enjoy the fragrance Femme for Women . This fragrant perfume created by Armand Basi is infused with the scent of coriander while containing both fruity and grassy notes. Add to this aromatic bouquet, fragrant whispers of black currants, sweet rose, violet leaves, and jasmine. Hints of pink pepper and peony are also present in Femme for Women. At the heart of this fragrance you will find rosewood, oak moss, conifer, white musk, warm amber, and soft vanilla. These light hints of various fragrances make Femme for Women the perfect fragrance to wear during the day. This scent is very feminine, so if this describes you or a woman you know, present her with the gift of a bottle of Femme for Women, conveniently available at website 99perfume.com. 99perfume.com offers excellent prices on designer perfumes. The variety of products offered from this website is quite extensive, and the product you see advertised is the product you will receive! Femme by Armand Basi, comes in an unassuming looking bottle, yet the various scents captured in Femme are a feast for the senses! Try this symphony of scents bottled into Femme for Women today!